Pink Dreams

Metallic Spheres featuring David Gilmour.

Some exciting news arrived last weekend through a Pink Floyd portal.
Alex Paterson, head spinner of the band The Orb, said in an interview
that he and David Gilmour had entered a studio ‘to work on an album’.

The news was vague and titillating enough to make all kind of
assumptions. Did this mean that LX & DG were attempting a Fireman
trick à la Youth and Paul McCartney? Perhaps Alex had finally lured Dave
in his spider web with a little help from Guy
Pratt who can be found as bass player and co-composer on several
Orb, Pink Floyd and David Gilmour records from the past? (Pratt and
Paterson also teamed up in a band called the Transit
Kings.)

The Orb's record output is prolific and even then a lot of tunes and
mixes stay hidden in the closet until LX decides to put them on a
compilation album somewhere. They just celebrated a third release in the Orbsessions
series from record company Malicious
Damage and according to some online reviews I read it is either
brilliant or utterly irritating, which makes it typically Orb, I guess.
I haven't bought Baghdad Batteries yet, my days that I ran to the
shop to get me their latest release are over as The Orb has left my
attention span somewhat thanks to the record Okie Dokie that
wasn't okie dokie at all but a mediocre Thomas
Fehlmann album with the brand name glued over it to sell a few extra
copies more.

The Orb The Dream.

It took me over a year to listen to The Dream that followed Okie
Dokie and although it has Youth (Martin Glover) written all over it the
result is pretty average. Not pretty average as in pretty
average but pretty average as in pretty but
nevertheless a bit average. Probably I’ll get to Baghdad
Batteries one of these days but I wouldn’t hold my breath, if I were you…

Although one fan found that the announcement came about two decades and
a half too late the GilmOrb collaboration is making both Floyd
and Orb communities very excited but excitement is something David
Gilmour does not favour anymore in his line of work. This week the
following comment could be found on his official website…

David & Orb Rumours True – Up To A Point

Recent comments by ambient exponents The Orb's Alex Paterson that they
have been collaborating with David Gilmour are true – up to a point.
David has done some recording with The Orb and producer Youth, inspired
initially by the plight of Gary
McKinnon. However, nothing is finalised, and nothing has been
confirmed with regards to any structure for the recordings or firm
details re: any release plans.

In other words: forget it…

Update 2010: as the Metallic
Spheres collaboration album came out in 2010, the above article was
a tad too pessimistic. For a (partial) review, check here: The
Relic Samples

This article first appeared on Felix Atagong's Unfinished Projects:
Pink
Dreams, some updates have been made.